Historically the term Constable Hook may be used more broadly, as synonymous with Bergen Point such as when it defined the southern extent of Bergen Neck and of Bergen Township when established in 1693. On March 15, 1861, the New Jersey Legislature approved unification of Constable Hook along with Bergen Point, Centerville and Salterville into the Township of Bayonne. Three weeks later the Charter for the City of Bayonne was signed by Governor Charles S. Olden.[1]

The first settler is believed to be Pieter Van Buskirk (Boskerck). Born around January 1, 1665, Van Buskirk built a stone house overlooking Upper New York Bay on Constable Hook at what became known as Van Buskirk's Point around the year 1700. Van Buskirk started a small family cemetery next to his house in 1736. His wife, Tryntje died on October 31 of that year and was buried in the cemetery. Pieter Van Buskirk died two years later on July 20, 1738 and was also buried in the cemetery.

In 1798, Van Buskirk descendent's sold a portion of Constable Hook to the Hazard Powder Co. that built a factory and dock. During the War of 1812, the Hazard Powder Co. factory produced gunpowder for the U.S. Navy and for fortifications in and around New York harbor.

In 1854 James J. Van Buskirk (1791–1856), wrote a will and mentioned 2 acres (8,100 m2) of his land situated at Constable Hook off East 22 Street was to be reserved for a cemetery. The cemetery was not opened until December 1854 and plots in the cemetery were sold soon after. The official name of the cemetery is not known, but it was often referred to in documents as "Hook Cemetery", "Bayonne Cemetery", "Constable Hook", and is known as the "Bayonne Constable Hook Cemetery". The remaining parts of the cemetery underwent a restoration project of the 1980s. It is surrounded by property owned by IMTT and is also maintained by the company.[3]

The industrial Port Johnson area is located in the southwestern portion of Constable Hook.[4] In 1864, after building a railroad bridge over Newark Bay, the Central Railroad of New Jersey laid railroad tracks through Bayonne into Constable Hook. After the American Civil War, they built the Port Johnston Coal Docks, at the time the largest coal port in the world. Many Irish immigrants took jobs with the railroad living in Constable Hook. So many Irish had moved there that the residents of Bayonne referred to the area as "Irishtown." On July 26, 1877, the first full scale strike occurred in Bayonne at the Port Johnston Coal Docks when workers walked off the job. Port Johnston was the site of a prisoner-of-war camp for Italian soldiers during WW2.[5]

The Van Buskirk farmhouse was demolished in 1906 by the Standard Oil Company, which owned the land and were expanding their refinery. Standard Oil has now refurbished the cemetery.[8] On July 4, 1900, a fire broke out in the Standard Oil refinery. It started when lightning caused a number of the large oil tanks to explode. Flaming oil spread out into New York Bay. It took three days to extinguish the fire that in the end caused $2.5 million in damages yet only nine injuries.

During the Bayonne refinery strikes of 1915–1916 workers at the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey went on strike over wages and union organization. Bayonne police battled the strikers causing the death of one striker. A week later, on July 22, a riot broke out as gunfire would take the lives of four more men, one as young as 19, and injuring many others, one as young as twelve. A second strike would occur the following year. On October 10, a riot broke out that left three policeman and several strikes injured. As the riots continued in the streets, police and strikers traded gunfire and one woman was killed. The strike ended on October 19 as the strikers returned to work and Standard Oil agreed to give everyone a raise.[7]

Exxon is responsible for clean-up of environmental damage caused by oil facilities, and has been the subject of extended litigation. As of 2015, Exxon has completed a soil investigation at the 324-acre terminal. It has until May 7, 2016, to finish its groundwater investigation under a bill passed unanimously by the New Jersey Legislature in late 2013 that gave polluters a deadline extension on investigating cleanups. according to the NJ DEP, clean-up at Constable Hook has included excavation, stabilization, capping, and the capturing of ground water contamination and installation of steel wall containment systems.[10]

Most of eastern Constable Hook was the 20th century Bayonne city dump, and now belongs to the Bayonne Golf Club, including a recreated lighthouse on the highest hill on the cape, serving as its clubhouse.[11] The north end has South Cove Commons, a late 20th-century shopping mall on North Hook Road, and a public shoreside nature walk east of there, affording views of tidal mudflats, the former Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne, and New York Harbor. The Hudson River Waterfront Walkway runs slog the northern shore of the cape. The Bayonne Energy Center opened in 2012.

The former Exxon Mobil site sits on Avenue J in the Constable Hook section of the city. "At this time the city has not been apprised of the exact terms of the settlement or how much money will be available to the city to remediate that property," Davis ...

"The Constable Hook Recycling Center will accept a wide variety of recyclable items. We are happy to provide this expanded service to our residents." The recycling center is open to residents of Bayonne, but building contractors are not allowed to drop ...

The same month a large outbreak of smallpox began in the Constable Hook section of Bayonne and the city put in place a quarantine of the entire section of the city. The quarantine prevented anyone but public health workers from entering the entire area.

Veterans, including Martin Wilk, 84, left, and Jack Condon, 78, with the Bayonne Memorial Day Parade Committee, place flags on graves and hold a memorial service at the Bayonne Constable Hook Cemetery inside the IMTT on Wednesday, May 22, 2013.

Flat calm and late sun bright on the water and the big container boats, 15 stories high, slide by the outfield on the Constable Hook Reach into the bay. Past the new Manhattan skyline, down the Narrows, under the Verrazano and beyond Gravesend into the ...

The Bayonne Energy Center, a natural gas-fueled power plant being built on Constable Hook. File photo 2012 (The Jersey Journal). Print · Times of Trenton guest opinion column By Times of Trenton guest opinion column The Times, Trenton on September ...

On the Upper Bay everything looked as it had, the sky was blue and the big boats came up the channel past Constable Hook and went out from Bayonne in the chop and the dazzle and the Statue of Liberty looked straight out to the world over all that water.

“People would work six days a week at Constable Hook . . . So Sundays were the day when the workers and their families came to the park at the 40th Street entrance, and enjoyed its tranquil passive sections, the greenery and Newark Bay waterfront.”.

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